Carbon Nanotubes & Graphene
Spray-on coating combines carbon nanotubes with ceramic
April 17, 2013 2:55 pm | News | Comments
Researchers from NIST and Kansas State University have demonstrated a spray-on mixture of carbon nanotubes and ceramic that has unprecedented ability to resist damage while absorbing laser light. The new material improves on NIST's earlier version of a spray-on nanotube coating for optical power detectors and has already attracted industry interest.
Inkjet-printed graphene may open doors to foldable electronics
May 20, 2013 3:15 pm | News | Comments
Northwestern University researchers have recently developed a graphene-based ink that...
New magnetic graphene may revolutionize electronics
May 10, 2013 12:44 pm | News | Comments
Scientists already know that graphene has extraordinary conductive, mechanical, and...
Engineers fine-tune the sensitivity of nano-chemical sensor
May 8, 2013 1:42 pm | News | Comments
Researchers in Illinois have discovered a technique for controlling the sensitivity of graphene...
New technique advances carbon-fiber composites
May 20, 2013 7:31 am | by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office | News | CommentsThese days, aerospace engineering is all about the light stuff. Advanced carbon-fiber composites have been used in recent years to lighten planes’ loads. For the next generation of commercial jets, researchers are looking to even stronger and lighter materials, such as composites made with carbon fibers coated with carbon nanotubes. However, a significant hurdle to achieving such composites has existed, until now.
Stacking 2D materials produces surprising results
May 17, 2013 7:46 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsGraphene has dazzled scientists ever since its discovery more than a decade ago. But one long-sought goal has proved elusive: how to engineer into graphene a property called a band gap, which would be necessary to use the material to make transistors and other electronic devices. New findings by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are a major step toward making graphene with this coveted property.
Add boron for better batteries
May 16, 2013 2:20 pm | News | CommentsFrustration led to revelation when Rice University scientists determined how graphene might be made useful for high-capacity batteries. Calculations by the Rice laboratory of theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson found a graphene-boron anode should be able to hold a lot of lithium and perform at a proper voltage for use in lithium-ion batteries.
Scientists discover new uses for tiny carbon nanotubes
May 15, 2013 7:25 am | News | CommentsThe atom-sized world of carbon nanotubes holds great promise for a future demanding smaller and faster electronic components. The challenge has been figuring out how to incorporate all of these nanotubes' great properties into useful electronic devices. A new discovery by four scientists at the University of California, Riverside has brought us closer to the goal.
Graphene joins the race to redefine the ampere
May 13, 2013 10:00 am | News | CommentsA new joint innovation by the National Physical Laboratory and the University of Cambridge could pave the way for redefining the ampere in terms of fundamental constants of physics. The world's first graphene single-electron pump provides the speed of electron flow needed to create a new standard for electrical current based on electron charge.
Researchers use graphene quantum dots to detect humidity, pressure
May 8, 2013 3:04 pm | News | CommentsThe latest research from a Kansas State University chemical engineer may help improve humidity and pressure sensors, particularly those used in outer space. A research team is using graphene quantum dots to improve sensing devices in a two-fold project. The first part involves producing the graphene quantum dots. The second part of the project involves incorporating these quantum dots into electron-tunneling based sensing devices.
Engineers manipulate a buckyball by inserting a single water molecule
May 6, 2013 10:04 am | News | CommentsResearchers have developed a technique to isolate a single water molecule inside a buckyball, or C60, and to drive motion of the so-called “big” nonpolar ball through the encapsulated “small” polar H2O molecule, a controlling transport mechanism in a nanochannel under an external electric field. They expect this method will lead to an array of new applications.
Nanomaterial toxicity study sets stage for policies to address health risks
May 6, 2013 7:41 am | News | CommentsFor the first time, researchers from institutions around the country have conducted an identical series of toxicology tests evaluating lung-related health impacts associated with widely used engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). The study provides comparable health risk data from multiple laboratories, which should help regulators develop policies to protect workers and consumers who come into contact with ENMs.
"Going negative" pays for nanotubes
May 3, 2013 9:17 am | News | CommentsA Rice University laboratory’s cagey strategy turns negatively charged carbon nanotubes into liquid crystals that could enhance the creation of fibers and films. The latest step toward making macromaterials out of microscopic nanotubes depends on cage-like crown ethers that capture potassium cations.
Researchers propose new old way to purify carbon nanotubes
May 1, 2013 11:46 am | News | CommentsAn old, somewhat passé, trick used to purify protein samples based on their affinity for water has found new fans at NIST, where materials scientists are using it to divvy up solutions of carbon nanotubes, separating the metallic nanotubes from semiconductors. They say it's a fast, easy, and cheap way to produce high-purity samples of carbon nanotubes for use in nanoscale electronics and many other applications.
Graphene layers reduce wear, friction on sliding steel surfaces
April 26, 2013 8:48 am | News | CommentsSometimes, all it takes is an extremely small amount of material to make a big difference. Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have recently discovered that they could substitute one-atom-thick graphene layers for oil-based lubricants on sliding steel surfaces, enabling a dramatic reduction in the amount of wear and friction.
Nanowires grown on graphene have surprising structure
April 23, 2013 7:54 am | News | CommentsWhen a team of University of Illinois engineers set out to grow nanowires of a compound semiconductor on top of a sheet of graphene, they did not expect to discover a new paradigm of epitaxy. The self-assembled wires have a core of one composition and an outer layer of another, a desired trait for many advanced electronics applications.
The many uses of nanowires and nanotubes
April 11, 2013 10:18 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsNanowires and nanotubes have become hot materials in recent years. They exist in many forms—made of metals, semiconductors, insulators, and organic compounds—and are being studied for use in electronics, energy conversion, optics and chemical sensing, among other fields.
ORNL microscopy uncovers “dancing” silicon atoms in graphene
April 3, 2013 4:17 pm | News | CommentsJumping silicon atoms are the stars of an atomic scale ballet featured in a new Nature Communications study from the U.S. Department of Energy(DOE)'s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The ORNL research team documented the atoms' unique behavior by first trapping groups of silicon atoms, known as clusters, in a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon called graphene.
Even graphene has weak spots
March 29, 2013 7:51 am | News | CommentsGraphene has become famous for its extraordinary strength. But less-than-perfect sheets of the material show unexpected weakness, according to researchers at Rice University and Tsinghua University. The kryptonite to this Superman of materials is in the form of a seven-atom ring that inevitably occurs at the junctions of grain boundaries in graphene, where the regular array of hexagonal units is interrupted. At these points, under tension, polycrystalline graphene has about half the strength of pristine samples of the material.
Hybrid ribbons a gift for powerful batteries
March 25, 2013 12:21 pm | by Mike Williams, Rice University | News | CommentsAccording to recent research at Rice University, vanadium oxide and graphene may be a key new set of materials for improving lithium-ion storage. Ribbons created at Rice from these two materials are thousands of times thinner than a sheet of paper, yet have potential that far outweighs current materials for their ability to charge and discharge very quickly. Initial capacity remains at 90% or more after more than 1,000 cycles.
Engineers make vibration sensor in the quantum world
March 18, 2013 9:21 am | News | CommentsResearchers in France and Germany have found a way to combine both carbon nanotubes with magnetic molecules on the atomic level to build a quantum mechanical system that acts as a vibration sensor. In their experiment the researchers used a carbon nanotube that was mounted between two metal electrodes, spanned a distance of about 1 µm, and could vibrate mechanically.
Predicted state of atomic collapse seen for first time
March 14, 2013 8:25 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | News | CommentsAtomic collapse, a phenomenon first predicted in the 1930s based on quantum mechanics and relativistic physics but never before observed, has now been seen for the first time in an “artificial nucleus” simulated on a sheet of graphene. The observation not only provides confirmation of long-held theoretical predictions, but could also pave the way for new kinds of graphene-based electronic devices, and for further research on basic physics.
Graphene researchers create superheated water that can corrode diamonds
March 11, 2013 10:11 am | News | CommentsA team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has successfully altered the properties of water, making it corrosive enough to etch diamonds. This strange result was achieved by attaching a layer of graphene on diamond and heated to high temperatures. Water molecules trapped between them become highly corrosive, as opposed to normal water.
Long-predicted atomic collapse state observed in graphene
March 8, 2013 9:59 am | News | CommentsWorking with microscopic artificial atomic nuclei fabricated on graphene, a collaboration of researchers have imaged the “atomic collapse” states theorized to occur around super-large atomic nuclei. This is the first experimental observation of a quantum mechanical phenomenon that was predicted nearly 70 years ago and holds important implications for the future of graphene-based electronic devices.
Nanotubes generate huge electric currents from osmotic flow
March 4, 2013 7:44 am | by Thorsten Naeser, Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics | News | CommentsThe salinity difference between freshwater and saltwater could be a source of renewable energy. However, power yields from existing techniques are not high enough to make them viable. A team led by physicists in France has discovered a new means of harnessing this energy. Their method of osmotic flow through boron nitride nanotubes generates electric currents with 1,000 times the efficiency of any previous system.
Researchers build nanotube photodetector
February 27, 2013 11:27 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Rice University and Sandia National Laboratories have made a nanotube-based photodetector that gathers light in and beyond visible wavelengths. It promises to make possible a unique set of optoelectronic devices, solar cells, and perhaps even specialized cameras.
Study: Graphene can multiply the power of light
February 25, 2013 11:38 am | News | CommentsAn international team of researchers have recently demonstrated that graphene is able to convert a single photon that it absorbs into multiple electrons that could drive electric current. The experiment sent a known number of photons with different energies onto a monolayer of graphene. In most materials, one absorbed photon generates one electron, but in this case many excited electrons were generated.
Technique developed to scale up production of graphene microsupercapacitors
February 20, 2013 8:34 am | News | CommentsWhile the demand for ever-smaller electronic devices has spurred the miniaturization of a variety of technologies, one area has lagged behind in this downsizing revolution: energy storage units, such as batteries and capacitors. Now, a team from University of California, Los Angeles may have changed the game by developing a groundbreaking technique that uses a DVD burner to fabricate microscale graphene-based supercapacitors.
A Cupid made of carbon nanotubes
February 13, 2013 2:39 pm | News | CommentsGot a “little crush” on someone this Valentine’s Day? Maybe you’ve been hit by a little arrow belonging to this cupid made from carbon nanotubes by Brigham Young University physics students. You don’t have to be a science lover to be amazed at how they build on such a small scale.
